Thursday, May 19, 2005

On Tuesday, British Member of Parliament George Galloway testified before the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations regarding allegations that Galloway illegally profited from the oil-for-food program in Iraq. To put it mildly, Galloway has a more confrontational style than the Senate is used to.

Watch the videos of Galloway's testimony and the appearance by Galloway and Senator Norm Coleman on Hardball with Chris Matthews. (The Wikipedia entry also has links to transcripts and other coverage of the testimony.)

Here's a small sample:

I gave my heart and soul to stop you committing the disaster that you did commit in invading Iraq, and I told the world that your case for the war was a pack of lies. I told the world that Iraq, contrary to your claims, did not have weapons of mass destruction. I told the world, contrary to your claims, that Iraq had no connection to al Qaeda. I told the world, contrary to your claims, that Iraq had no connection to the atrocity on 9/11/2001. I told the world, contrary to your claims, that the Iraqi people would resist a British and American invasion of their country and that the fall of Baghdad would not be the beginning of the end, but merely the end of the beginning.

Senator, in everything I said about Iraq, I turned out to be right and you turned out to be wrong, and 100,000 people have paid with their lives -- 1,600 of them American soldiers sent to their deaths on a pack of lies -- 15,000 of them wounded, many of them disabled forever, on a pack of lies.

Galloway was kicked out of the Labour Party for his statements against the war in Iraq and against Tony Blair personally, but he has also been an outspoken opponent of the sanctions imposed on Iraq after the Kuwait invasion in 1990. Additionally, Galloway was an outspoken critic of Saddam Hussein, and of American and British arms sales to Saddam in the 1980's. After his expulsion from the Labour Party, Galloway joined RESPECT: the Unity Coalition (whose slogan is "Existence = Resistance") and moved from Glasgow, Scotland, to the Bethnal Green area of east London.

I submit this for your consideration: even if Galloway were guilty of everything the Senate reports have accused him of, it would not alter the truth of the comment I cited above.